2 Wegener Crater
For ease of communication, because of the importance of this crater, and because its discovery would be impossible without the Continental Drift Theory, I propose that this outstanding geological anomaly should be denominated Wegener Crater.
It is a fair tribute to the most visionary scientist in the field of Geology, whose insight, unfortunately, was not recognized in life.
Image: Google Maps
The lava spill at the interior of Wegener Crater is currently known as the Philippine Tectonic Plate.
- Coordinates of the northernmost point of the central crater volcanic arc: 24° 11’ 19” N, 142° 38’ 47” E
The Wegener Crater shows the pattern of a complex crater as expected for an impactor of this size.
And it is evident that half of what is expected to be found when looking at an impact crater appears to be missing.
It is constituted of a central crater and two secondary rings — a similar structure to the complex Mare Orientale crater on the Moon.
2.1 The strange configuration of Wegener Crater
2.1.1 The Philippine Sea Plate/Mariana Plate fraction
The fraction of the Philippine Sea Plate/Mariana Plate, which shows half of the central crater and its outer secondary ring constituted of the Japanese Archipelago, Taiwan Island, and the Philippine Archipelago, is arranged in a approximate 4,600 km diameter arc from the center of the Mariana Arc.
The total diameter of the outer secondary ring of the crater can not be measured on the east-west direction – only part of the western half of the secondary ring is preserved at this fraction of the crater.
The interior of the Wegener Crater shows two huge lava spills that constitute the totality of the Philippine Sea Plate/Mariana Plate.
The whole southern and eastern portions of the outer secondary ring are found respectively at the Zealandia and West Antarctica fractions.
Any remains of the fracture between the central crater and its secondary ring in the eastern half were subducted by the Mariana Trench due to the drifting of the Pacific Plate.
This subduction began approximately 50 million years ago, the estimated date for the formation of the Mariana Trench.
It is also possible to date the beginning of this subduction by the change in direction of the Pacific Plate demonstrated by the Hawaii-Emperor seamount chain, as the Pacific Plate, that had been moving northward, suddenly began to move itself westward.
Recent studies indicate that the occurrence of this significant sharp turn in the orientation of the Pacific Plate from north to west-northwest would have occurred 47 million years ago.[1]
Note at the figure below the presence of the inner secondary ring, diameter of approximately 2,500 km, indiacated by its gravitational anomaly centered at the central crater.
Image: Circular gravitational anomaly in the region
1) Eastern side of Philippine Sea Plate/Mariana Plate fraction
Let's focus on three components: the central crater, the inner secondary ring and the outer secondary ring.
· Central crater
The most striking feature is the Mariana Volcanic Arc.
The eastern half of the rim of the central crater is well preserved along with its volcanic arc and shows an approximated diameter of 1,500 km.
The visible half of the central crater rim presents the typical circular shape generated by the explosion of the bolide.
The fact that it is semicircular shows a process of diametrical fracture.
By crustal deformation possibly resulting from the pressure exerted by the enormous spill of magma, the edge of the volcanic arc extended itself in a straight line up to the Japanese archipelago, forming the Izu-Bonin-Mariana (IBM) arc system — but later studies revealed that this arc is actually reminiscent of the fracture in three fractions process, as will be seen below.
· Inner secondary ring*
The inner secondary ring is fully preserved across the circumference on both sides of the crater, but is detectable only by its gravitational anomaly – its approximate diameter is 2,500 km.
The western half of the inner secondary ring is slightly less pronounced than its eastern half.
*Review: Reviewing this image and comparing it again with Google Earth images on 5/15/2020, I concluded that what I initially called the inner secondary ring is actually the edge of the central crater. The diameter is larger than that visible in Google Earth because the map of the gravitational anomaly highlights the submerged part. The 2,500 km diameter indicated on the map should cover the exterior of the anomaly.
2) Western side of Philippine Sea Plate/Mariana Plate fraction
Central crater
The western half of the central crater at the Philippine Sea Plate/Mariana Plate fraction of the crater spreads along a lava spill. There is no evidence of the crater rim at this place.
· Outer secondary ring
The visible part of the outer secondary ring of the complex Wegener Crater is easily identifiable in satellite imagery and allows us to measure a total diameter of approximately 4,600 km.
Its farthest to western visible point above the water is at the island of Luzon, Philippines.
- Approximate coordinates of the island of Luzon: 16° N, 120° E
The emerged part of the preserved outer secondary ring in its western half consists of:
· Japan Archipelago – at least the southern and central areas of Honshu Island, and Shikoku, Kyushu and Okinawa Islands
· Taiwan Island
· Philippine Archipelago
Only a 150° arc of the western half is apparent – and there is no other evidence of the outer secondary ring in the eastern half of the crater.
· Wegener Crater’s internal lava spills
From the diametric fracture in the central crater, the western side is constituted of a huge magmatic stroke that moves in all directions and is limited by the outer secondary ring – part of that spill was subducted at the west side below the Philippine Trench, adjacent to the archipelago. of the same name.
The set of spills currently has an area of 5,500,000 km2, slightly smaller than the magmatic spill of the Siberian traps (7,000,000 km2).
No information is available on its volume, but the gravitational anomaly associated with the Philippine Sea Plate/Mariana Plate indicates that its volume is far greater than the Siberia spill.
Longitudinally from south to north, there is a second magmatic spill overlaid upon the central crater spill – it is originated at a smaller crater that will be analyzed later.
The gravitational anomaly from the latter lava spill is significantly larger than the entire area surrounding the Wegener Crater lava spill over the entire length of the Philippine Sea Plate/Mariana Plate.
· Wegener B Crater
In the inner area of the secondary rings of the Wegener Crater is a smaller crater located approximately 1,000 km at southwest from the central crater.
Aiming to ease of communication, I propose to this smaller crater the name Wegener B Crater.
- Coordinates of the northernmost point of Wegener B Crater: 10° 11’ 44” N, 136° 00' 42” E
Its diameter is 325 km and features a lava flow volume disproportionate to a relatively small crater.
Its perfectly circular shape points to an impact source.
Wegener B alone, if confirmed as an impact crater, would already supplant the largest terrestrial crater, Vredefort in South Africa, 300 km.
For comparison, Chicxulub in Mexico has a diameter of only 180 km. But Wegener B is tiny compared to the 4,600 km diameter of Wegener.
Despite its small size, it is fundamental to understanding the evolution process of the Wegener Crater and the formation of the Philippine Sea Plate/Mariana Plate.
The estimate of its age is uncertain, but its collaboration for the huge south-north lava spill seems to point to a period close to the main impact.
The second impact would have occurred after the fracture of the western and eastern halves of the Wegener crater, linked to the collision event explained in the respective specific segment.
The impact on the already fractured surface facilitated the basaltic effusion, with the mantle still extremely warm and disturbed by the main impact, causing an intense lava flow towards the north.
The initial assumption that the point of impact of Wegener Crater would have occurred where it is now the Chilean coast made it possible to hypothesize an asteroid blast passing through the Permian age craters of Bedout in Australia, Luizi in Congo, Araguainha in Brazil and Wegener B.
However, the refinement of the actual impact position at the south polar region has ruled out the possibility of Wegener B integrating this possible blast, unless it had occurred many millions of years after the major impact, when Wegener Crater’s Philippine Sea Plate/Mariana Plate fraction had drifted sufficiently up north to allow the alignment.
2.1.2 The West Antarctica fraction
The fraction of West Antarctica comprehends the eastern outer secondary ring that forms the arched ridge with 2,300 kilometers of the Transantarctic Hills.
It also presents its gigantic volcanic province — a remnant of the impact that still is active after 252 million years.
This does not constitute an exception, since the hotspot from the Viluy Crater, associated to the Devonian Extinction 360 million years ago, is still active — probably due to the influence of the African Plate drifting against it.[2]
This volcanic activity in Antarctica was discovered within the last decade.
1) Wegener Crater Hotspot
Large magnitude impact events always associate a hotspot at the crash site and a volcanic mountain chain (indicating the drifting of the tectonic plate above it) that leads to a crater that is associated with a lava spill.
Wegener Crater is the largest impact crater associated with the largest volcanic seamount chains that begin at the recently discovered largest igneous province on the planet, West Antarctica.[3]
The consequences of the impact are still observed today.
The Wegener impact was so exceptional that it was able to generate two huge lava spills, one inside the crater and another one on the opposite side of the planet.
About two hundred Antarctic volcanoes spread over an area equivalent to twice the area of Japan or Germany, or twice the area of the American state of Texas.
This volcanic activity is causing the extremely fast melting of the ice on the region of Thwaites Glacier, nicknamed Doomsday Glacier.
About two hundred Antarctic volcanoes spread over an area equivalent to twice the area of Japan or Germany, or twice the area of the American state of Texas.
This volcanic activity is causing the extremely fast melting of the ice on the region of Thwaites Glacier, nicknamed Doomsday Glacier.
Images: Scientists discover 91 volcanoes below Antarctic ice sheet, The Guardian, Robin McKie, 2017
wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e8/Antarctica_surface.jpg/537px-Antarctica_surface.jpg
Note the circular shape of Marie Byrd Land, located between the Antarctica Peninsula and the Transantarctic Hills.
It is the main region of the hotspot and its plateau was formed after the two halves of the central crater drifted to their present locations at Philippine Sea Plate/Mariana Plate and New Hebrides Plate.
Also visible at the image above is the 4,600 km diameter corresponding to the Transantarcti Hills — a remnant of the southern fraction of the outer secondary ring of Wegener’s Crater.
It is nowadays adjacent to the hotspot/Marie Byrd Land due to the subduction of its eastern side caused by the advancing of East Antarctica, drifting over and subducting the western half/Antarctic fraction of Wegener Crater.
The Antarctic Peninsula probably integrated the outer secondary ring of Wegener Crater, and it was deformed and rotated due to the East Antarctica thrust.
The region where New Zealand was detached from is the second most active volcanic region at Victoria Land.
The dating of transantarctic hills in 66 million years is found in the scientific literature, but this date may be masked - recent tectonic activities due to the drift of the Antarctic Plate that are overlapping the Permian formation of the outer secondary ring.
Another possibility, which the analysis of the dimensions of the other fractions of the crater leads us to believe, is that the Transantártic Mountain Range is of secondary orogenesis, in the same way as the Land of Marie Byrd.
In this case, the fraction of Zelandia would have occupied the region today identified as the Antarctic fraction, separating before the time attributed to the origin of the Transantartic Mountains:
Such positioning of the New Zealand islands brings them closer to the abducted section of the Nazca plate currently east of the Andes.
There is geological compatibility between the New Zealand islands and the Altiplano highlands of South America, all of which have a wealth of copper and lithium, a coincidence of minerals that does not usually occur elsewhere on the planet.
Another possibility, which the analysis of the dimensions of the other fractions of the crater leads us to believe, is that the Transantártic Mountain Range is of secondary orogenesis, in the same way as the Land of Marie Byrd.
In this case, the fraction of Zelandia would have occupied the region today identified as the Antarctic fraction, separating before the time attributed to the origin of the Transantartic Mountains:
Such positioning of the New Zealand islands brings them closer to the abducted section of the Nazca plate currently east of the Andes.
There is geological compatibility between the New Zealand islands and the Altiplano highlands of South America, all of which have a wealth of copper and lithium, a coincidence of minerals that does not usually occur elsewhere on the planet.
2) Coincidence between hotspot and central crater
The largest hotspot is located in West Antarctica, at Marie Byrd Land, with almost a hundred of recently discovered volcanoes, many of them active — this activity is causing abnormal oceanic waters heating and accelerated ice melting in that polar region.[4]
A map of Antarctica without the ice cap shows the circular shape of the hotspot at Marie Byrd Land — its diameter of 1,500 km coincides exactly with the circle formed by both volcanic arcs from the central crater of Wegener Crater.
It can't be just another huge coincidence.
By means of continued volcanic activities after the fracture and departure of the Philippine Sea Plate/Mariana Plate fraction, the Marie Byrd Land was formed occupying the same location of the central crater.
It is possibly a similar process that originated the Greek Islands from the hotspot of Viluy crater after it reached its actual location in Mediterranean Sea and is volcanism was reactivated by the African Plate drifting against it.[5]
The effects are also noticeable in the region of Chile where there are still remnants of impact hotspots, such as San Felix and Juan Fernandez, in the Pacific Ocean.
There are also several consequential hotspots resulting from the subduction of Nazca Plate – whose relationship with the impact will be explained later – as the most active Chilean volcanoes (Villarrica, Calbuco, Copahue, Chaitén, Láscar, Llaima, Nevados del Chillán) and other Andean countries.
3) Ice melting due to collision of Antarctica's eastern and western halves
In 2020, the water temperature in Thwaites Glacier region reached 2°C above the freezing point, which causes concern about the volume of the melted ice and the general increase in the level of the oceans around the globe.[6]
This study allows us to interpret that the cause of the increasing volcanic activity in that region is the pressure exerted by the East Antarctic tectonic plate advancing against and subducing Western Antarctica, that is, the fraction of the Wegener Crater delimited by the Transantartic Mountains.
The bad news is that this trend is irreversible — there is no way to prevent the drifting of an entire continent — and humanity needs to prepare defensive measures to this rising of the waters, independently of the ocean level rise caused by the atmospheric global warming.
The calculations made for the rise of the sea level until today considered only the undeniable warming induced by the excess of greenhouse gases generated mainly by human activities.
But now, due to this geological phenomenon that started 251 million years ago, the rise in ocean levels that seemed something distant — a theoretical exercise faced without due depth by world governments — becomes an imperative demand:
The waters will rise at a faster pace than previously thought.
New calculations need to be made taking into account this new factor — there is an increased urgency for the study of measures to contain damage and build flood barriers because the effects will be felt much earlier than expected, probably within the next 30 years.
2.1.3 The Zealandia fraction
The fraction of Zealandia corresponds to about 1/3 of the original Wegener Crater.
The remnants of the southern outer secondary ring, as well as its volcanic arc (New Hebrides tectonic plate). This constitutes the western side of the central crater, and it is deformed due to its collision with the Australian Plate.
But even deformed, it is still possible to measure its outer secondary ring with a diameter of 4,600 kilometers from the approximate center of the Vanuatu volcanic arc.
The islands of New Zealand originated in the outer secondary ring of this fraction, and the North and South islands are no more aligned with the outer secondary ring.
They changed their orientation because of the tension imposed by the Pacific Plate — causing the set of islands to rotate over their common axis, or the South Island to drift from its original position.
New Zealand being formed at the vicinity of Antarctica — united to West Antarctica and only separating from it after East Antarctica drifted to and collided with it to form the Antarctica we know today — this origin explains the riddle of their fauna not sharing reptiles, amphibians and mammals native from the Australian continent, from which they supposedly departed from in relatively recent times.
In fact, New Zealander fauna and flora are the best evidences that permit us to date and to understand the process of fragmentation of the original Wegener Crater.
[1] The mysterious bend in the Hawaiian-Emperor chain, Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers
[2] The Viluy Crater hotspot is located nowadays under the Mediterranean Sea, according to other study by the author.
[3] Scientists discover 91 volcanoes below Antarctic ice sheet, this is in addition to 47 already known about (...), theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/12/scientists-discover-91-volcanos-antarctica
[4] Scientists discover 91 volcanoes below Antarctic ice sheet, The Guardian, Robin McKie, 2017
[5] Another study by the author.
[6] ScienceDaily, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200129174526.htm - Scientists find record warm water in Antarctica, pointing to cause behind troubling glacier melt, January 29, 2020, New York University
ATTENTION: Blog in reverse order. To continue reading, go to the post below ("Postagem mais antiga").
[6] ScienceDaily, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200129174526.htm - Scientists find record warm water in Antarctica, pointing to cause behind troubling glacier melt, January 29, 2020, New York University
ATTENTION: Blog in reverse order. To continue reading, go to the post below ("Postagem mais antiga").
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